Pulled the trigger on a Z5 today

Posted here until admin creates a Z5 subforum. It is a very similar camera to the Z6.


I've been lusting after a new camera for a little while now. I would love to have a Z7, but they are a little too much $$$ right now. I decided that the Z5 was a good compromise. Full frame, most of the neat new features of the mirrorless, at a very attractive price.

Initial impression based on unboxing and taking a small handful of pictures in the yard before the light was gone.

1. Weight. This is a hefty camera. I kind of like that. I'm used to old school metal bodied film cameras. The entry level D3400 I've been using is very light. Part of the weight with this new camera is the lens. I got the 24-70 F4 S series lens. It has a lot of glass up front, and the body is substantial. All in all, I like the weight. It gives me the impression of quality. Perhaps a false impression, but there it is.

2. Autofocus. It has an unreal number of AF spots and quite a lot of controls over the AF. I like the fact that the manual focus ring is at the rear of the lens. It is electronic, and I understand it can be programmed for other controls. I had one picture that the camera had problems with, but that's not unusual for AF. I need to dig into the controls, I believe you can actually touch the area on the display to choose your AF point.

3. Controls. This thing has buttons and wheels all over it. It's almost overload. I'm sure I'll learn which ones I want to use, and stick with that.

4. Viewfinder. The electronic viewfinder will take some getting used to. It's not ideal in low light, but gets the job done. Lots and lots of information in the viewfinder. Like the controls, I'm sure I'll learn where to look for the critical info I want to keep track of.

5. Shutter. The shutter on this thing definitely takes a light touch. That's good news for reducing vibration when shooting, but again, will take some getting used to to avoid taking unwanted pictures. I had to delete quite a few during my brief try out this afternoon.

6. Picture quality. The jury is out on that right now. I looked at the few I took, and I think they have more resolution than those from the DX camera, but it's too early to tell. The light was getting low outside, and it's hard to say if the amount of enlargement butted up against the capability of the camera, or camera shake from lower shutter speeds. I'll know more after a couple shooting sessions. I'm thinking there won't be a huge difference in actual resolution, but I'll have a noticeable increase in dynamic range and perhaps a noticeable increase in lens resolution. This is supposed to be a much sharper lens than the 18-55 DX kit lens on the D3400.

I'll leave it at that for now, but will post more after some time spent with the camera. Hopefully I'll have a few shots worthy of posting to show what I can do with it.

hope you enjoy, a route we all will have to take sooner or later.

Congratulations on your new camera. We look forward to your shots with your new baby :encouragement:

Well, I got a chance to go take some pictures today. Overall I'm pleased. I really missed not having a long telephoto lens. I'm going to have to do something about that sooner rather than later. The camera handled well overall. Good ergonomics.

AF was decent, but had some issues in certain circumstances. I put it in one setting and left it there. I'll have to do some research and figure out what will likely work best for me.

Got used to the electronic viewfinder pretty quickly. The only issue is you have to remember to hit the button if you haven't done anything with the camera for a while and the VF shuts down. Not a big deal, just something else to adjust to. I like being able to have both the viewfinder and back screen showing the scene. Just have to be careful not to touch the screen, or else turn off the feature that lets you take a picture by touching the screen. Nice feature, but annoying if you don't know how to turn it off. Wasn't looking to run through all the features and learn them today, just get a feel for the camera and what it could do.

The 24-70 is not a macro lens, but it sure allows you to get close. I don't think I managed to bump up against the minimum focusing distance. Downloaded the pictures and looked at them. They are sharp. Not hugely sharper than similar images taken with the D3400. They do seem to have better contrast and depth at high magnification.

Here's a close up of a Monarch. I can go up to about 140% magnification before sharpness breaks down. Long before that you can see sharp details of "fur" on the body and scales on the wings.




And just for fun:

As posted in the HDR subsection, the Pup and I went to Boneyard Beach this morning. I was able to give the Z5 a workout. Had one issue with trying to get into self timer mode to fire the auto bracketing without a hand on the camera. My fault. I had figured out how to do it the day before, but in the semi dark, with the short window of good light breathing down my neck, I choked and couldn't find the right button. I just carefully used the shutter button on a fairly stable tripod. Might invest in a wired remote. They aren't too expensive for this camera. Yes, Snapbridge will fire the camera, but it wouldn't fire more than one shot at a time. Not what I needed to shoot 5 auto bracket shots at a time. Other than hitting the screen with my nose a couple times and changing the autofocus point, it performed extremely well.

Again, this is a solid feeling camera compared to the D3400. I know that doesn't translate to better images on it's own, but it makes the experience more enjoyable for me. I've started processing the images, and I must say I am quite happy with the clarity of them. The images I got from this location with the D camera, were not as crisp as I would like. Also, the shadows were somewhat muddy. I'm processing most of today's pics using HDR, but the singles I have worked are very similar, and in no way inferior to the HDRs.

All in all, I am quite pleased at this point. Now I need to decide what to do about a tele. I can't justify the cost of the new 100-400 by Nikon. I will likely fall back on an FTZ adapter and the 70-300 F4.5-5.6 ED. The Pup has one she uses on her D5600, and it seems to be a solid lens, at a reasonable price, so I'm thinking about getting one for myself. I'm open to suggestions on what might work well for me. Looking for getting out to at least 300 mm.

Here is one of the HDRs I took this morning. It's 5 shots at 1 stop increments. The tree looks a little soft on focus in this JPG, but the full sized file looks quite sharp.

+1 for creating a new Z5 subforum. I went to a store to hold the Z5 and a Zfc and I'm 85% of the way there for buying the Z5. There is a $100 instant rebate for March available.

I personally had higher expectations for the viewfinder. I've been reading hype for mirrorless viewfinders for over 3 years and I suppose a letdown was inevitable. I felt more like I was looking at TV with incorrect white and brightness. Hope I can fix that with one I buy. But the size did not feel like it was that much bigger than the Zfc, and I was pleased with having a FX sensor with IBIS and basically the same battery system as my D750 and D600. It even carries with it the same wired remote shutter connector as the DSLR cousins. That is a big deal for me. I can use my intervalometer with it.

After using the camera for a week, I don't find the viewfinder an issue. Yes, it is grainy and poor quality in very low light conditions. In decent light, I find that I don't even think about the viewfinder after having used the camera a short while. With the 24-70 F4 I bought with it, the autofocus is quick and silent. Just watch out for the feature where you can change the auto focus area by touching the rear screen. I have inadvertently switched auto focus point with my nose when putting the camera up to my eye. You can quickly turn this feature off if desired. Right now the biggest downside is the unavailability of reasonably priced telephoto lenses. I would love to have the 100-400 they just came out with, but at almost $3K, it's a little rich for my blood. Heck, I've never spent that much on a car for me. Yes, I've spent much more on family vehicles. My planned solution is the FTZ and perhaps the 70-300 F4.5-5.6E. I have the FTZ arriving today, and my daughter has the 70-300, so I can try it out before buying one. She really like the lens on her crop frame. It provides much better resolution than the DX kit lens it replaced.